THE BOOKS OF PAINTING THE DREAMED ONE

Lately I often dream of myself becoming a plant. Small roots, like thoughts, horned, penetrate the earth in the dark, searching for clefts where most unlikely to find—the cleft of darkness. Once found, it bears another layer of meanings. In the beginning, it might represent just a small change, but later on, it brings about a whole creation of subtlety, making holes into a channel. Oh the secret fluid. Then, your dramatics takes an upper hand. The sturdy stem grows fresh tender fibers that even make women's skin look a little fake. But fake or not is not the point; what’s important is that once you hold the symbol of the stem, the inspiration from the earth transforms into a Zest that only you can grasp. What’s more important is that as long as it’s life, it echoes in secret. Therefore, it’s not surprising that in such a deep place you can still hear the chirping of an oriole. Even the sole response has become our cards to show – you know I’ve had this dream not only for myself.

ZANG Di

ZANG Di (pseudonym of ZANG Li), born 1964, is a lecturer in Chinese Literature in Beijing is counted as one of China’s best contemporary poets. He has published books of poetry and edited several influential anthologies, translations and poetry magazines.

His work combines Chinese and international literary and cultural traditions in an ingenious way. His complex, multi-layered texts are frequently described as avant-garde poetry. He was in fact one of the first Chinese poets to turn away both from the sentimentalist tradition and the open social criticism of 90s poetry in China and take a more experimental postmodern approach. With great technical skill, associative ease and astounding wordplays, he probes the limits of language. This combination of dry tone, complexity of thought and humour has made ZANG Di an inspiration in China for a whole generation of young poets. Although he has won many prizes in China for his work, he is still too little known internationally.